You run the following commands:
RMAN> list expired backup;
RMAN> delete expired backup;
What will happen to the backup set pieces associated with the backups that appear in the list
expired backup command?
A.
They will be renamed.
B.
Nothing will happen to them. The backup set pieces do not exist.
C.
They will be deleted immediately since they are not in the flash recovery area.
D.
You will need to manually remove the physical files listed in the output of the commands.
E.
They will become hidden files and removed 10 days later.
The explanation given in the book where I found this question (This is not my opinion) is …
Expired backup set pieces are those backup set pieces that do not exist. They are discovered via the crosscheck command and marked as expired. The list expired command reports backup set records that are marked as expired. The delete expired backup command marks the backup metadata in the controlfile and recovery catalog with a status of DELETED.
My opinion is different, see ….
http://oracle.su/docs/11g/backup.112/e10643/rcmsynta015.htm#i81077
in the section “Table 2-4 Meaning of Crosscheck Status”
see the section on EXPIRED
Here you will see
A backup set is EXPIRED if any backup piece in the set is EXPIRED. The CROSSCHECK command does not delete files that it does not find, but updates their repository records to EXPIRED. You can run DELETE EXPIRED to remove the repository records for expired files and any existing physical files whose status is EXPIRED.